Hold Congress Accountable

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Many Members of Congress are talking the talk of limited government and fiscal responsibility, but who is actually walking the walk? When it comes to making the hard decisions that will get the government off its spending binge and back on the path of fiscal sanity, what Congressmen are living up to the task?

Over the past three years, President Obama has spent billions of dollars bailing out big banks, insurance giants and auto companies. These massive programs have not only cost American taxpayers dearly, but have sent the message that in the future poorly-run companies will be rescued from their failures. But that’s only the beginning—now Obama wants to bailout failing countries. Using the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Obama plans to put American taxpayers on the hook for a second 145 billion dollar rescue package for Greece.

There has been a vociferous debate in both the House and Senate over whether the Environmental Protection Agency should have the power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. While the effort to rein in the EPA has stalled in the Senate, Republicans were able to secure a cut of 1.6 billion to the ambitious agency’s baseline in the recent continuing resolution that averted a government shutdown.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s backdoor regulatory fiat over our economy was unable to be thwarted in the Senate on Wednesday, but there were some optimistic signs located within both the Senate and House votes.

President Obama gave a speech on energy yesterday which included platitudes decrying the use of “gimmicks” and “slogans” such as “drill, baby, drill” when discussing further progress in domestic energy exploration. However, conspicuously located in the background of the President’s presentation was the highly non-gimmicky “winning the future”, which has been the slogan for increased taxpayer subsidies for highly inefficient wind and solar power.

Today on Capitol Hill, there is important hearing entitled, "Examining Recent Regulatory and Enforcement Actions of the Mine Safety and Health Administration". In a time of rising energy costs and high unemployment, we need to reduce onerous and duplicative regulations to ensure that our economy flourishes once again.

Recently, President Obama called for the elimination of the alternate engine program for the joint strike fighter (JSF) program in an effort to cut back on defense spending. In this era of fiscal irresponsibility, the Obama administration has made a decision that is finally in the interest of the American taxpayer.

Over a century ago, Judge Gideon Tucker first said “no man’s life, liberty or property is safe when the legislature is in session.” Those words still ring true today. As the 112th Congress starts, we should remain watchful but there is some reason for hope. Today, the Constitution was read on the floor of the House for the first time in the history of America. This is encouraging news.